


Chances Given

by OmnipresentNuance



Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: ARGGH!, Gen, Hobbies, Parodies, Science Fiction, comic books, video games - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:33:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24152125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmnipresentNuance/pseuds/OmnipresentNuance
Summary: As their way of committing in their promise of pulling back on making fun of the things Lincoln likes, the sisters along with him come up with a plan where for the whole day, they as four separate groups try out those very same hobbies of Lincoln’s alongside him. A follow up to “Cracks in the Skin”.
Kudos: 5





	Chances Given

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there, I'm back again only five days removed from my most recent posting. Indeed, sometimes I can bang out these fairly quickly should I want to and have enough time at hand to do so.
> 
> As stated in the summary, this is a follow up to my well acclaimed story "Cracks in the Skin". I'm not just simply saying that as it being one of my personal favorites to write, but based on the view count and those who were and still are generous enough to put in their favorites, clearly a lot of my viewing public feels the same way. A very hearty thank you to all for that!
> 
> All right, that's actually all I wanted to say at the top, so sit back and I'll let you get to it. Enjoy!
> 
> The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

It had been a decent enough morning thus far for Lincoln Loud. Nothing too exciting, but nothing at the same time that hardly constituted unpleasantness, either.

But there was one curiosity that did stick out to him: the relative lack of time seeing his sisters in the last half hour or so.

Aside from bidding them a good morning during the wait for each of them to use the bathroom and some quick run-ins during breakfast, Lincoln's morning has largely gone on by so far with little sisterly involvement. It was a peculiarity that did raise questions in his mind about as to why this may be the case, but mostly he didn't think over it too hard.

In any event, Lincoln was about to head on over from the kitchen to the living room for a spot of TV watching.

That is, until…

"Hey, Lincoln."

He yelped when he heard the characteristically monotone voice belonging to his younger sister Lucy addressing him unexpectedly startling him from behind.

"Oh, hi Lucy…" Lincoln said short on breath, "What's up...I mean, aside from nearly giving me a heart attack that is? No offense, but you know…"

"Sigh...sorry. Anyway, I've been chosen to inform you that a sibling meeting is about to commence in Lori and Leni's room and you're needed to attend." Lucy explained.

"Wait, there is? As in right now? Was I supposed to know about this?" Lincoln questioned.

Lucy shrugged, "Maybe? I don't really know myself. You could ask once you arrive. But anyway, you should be coming along."

"Um...all right then, Luce. I'll be on my way." Lincoln acknowledged.

As she got his confirmation, Lucy headed back upstairs and a minute later, Lincoln went on his way, too. He arrived inside Lori and Leni's room where all his sisters were scattered about, most sitting on the floor, a few on the beds and Lori standing in front of the podium.

"Ah, Lincoln, thanks for finally coming along." Lori greeted him, "Why don't you take a seat?"

"Yeah, sure…" Lincoln said awkwardly while sitting down on the floor, "Hey, was I told about or otherwise supposed to know about this meeting beforehand? Because if so, I'm sorry if I completely forgot about it."

Lori shook her head, "Oh, no, this was something a handful of us literally cobbled up in the last few minutes or so. In fact, you're far from the only one who just now found out about it, so don't worry about making a big deal out of it or anything."

Lincoln breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh, good. So, what's this going to be about anyway?"

"It's only about one thing, really. I could explain it myself, but I'm going to let some of the girls here say more." Lori said, gesturing with her hand over to her sisters.

"Yeah, so Lincoln, do you remember a few days back when we gathered here and had that nice long talk where we covered a whole bunch of subjects centering largely around your comics and such?" Luan began with.

"Yes, such a symposium in which was initiated first when we this sister collective humbly conceded we made the calamitous error of directing all blame to you, elder male sibling, for impeding the porcelain plumbing until Lucy showed her inner fortitude in confessing to the deed, thus freeing yourself from the toilsome sanctions imposed by our parental units and you were granted license to take part in the gathering of comic enthusiasts you were brimming with much zeal over in attending." Lisa laid out intricately.

"But then you came back home showing this attitude to us when we asked how'd things went, and once that previous meeting really got rolling and after we pleaded with you to tell us about what went down, you admitted that at the convention you were made fun of by a bunch of good for nothing chumps for the costume you wore. You also then mentioned that you ran off and cried because of being made fun of too much, but you were really almost scared to admit that part over the belief that you'd think it would go against the thick skin you pride yourself in having and the thought you had that we'd actually make fun of you for crying." Lynn brought up.

"Yeah, and I don't mean to cut in, but on that point in particular I really want to reemphasize something to you, Lincoln. Like I said at the time, we would _never_ make fun of you for crying, especially if we ever knew any of us played a part in it. For instance, none of us took joy in seeing you cry because you missed that special episode of "ARRGH!" you wanted to watch due to everything as a result of the power going out." Lori explained, with a reassuring smile forming next, "Literally our only reaction and instinct should any of us see you, hear you or learned you recently were crying is to find out what's wrong, be there to comfort you and then reinforce you can rely on us whenever you're sad, because even eleven year old boys with thick skins should never be ashamed to cry. Lastly, I'm not saying any of this to fulfill some sort of stereotype about girls telling boys it's okay to cry and express their emotions, because it should be a universal truth that crying is nothing to feel guilty about and especially when there's someone by your side to help you through everything."

"Yep, I'd say the boss man's totally on point with all that, little bro. Anyway, to pick up where Luan, Lis and LJ left off, we also said that we got majorly worried the 'tude you were in upon coming back home could've been due to us perhaps ragging on you too hard earlier during that particular day, but you really denied otherwise. But then you sort of threw us for a loop when you actually thought we hated all the things you loved and if we held anything against you for taking part in them. We said that was never the case and suggested we simply never understood the appear of what you liked, which we then admitted that lack of understanding might've been the driving force behind poking fun at them a bit too much. Finally, even though we all agreed that teasing as a whole was never gonna stop, we did however at least agree in trying in working on no longer being so insulting or disrespectful to what you do like or anything of ours when all is said and done." Luna wrapped up saying.

Upon hearing the conclusion of those long-winded explanations, Lincoln did crack a little smile. That discussion really was one of the most important he and his sisters ever had as a group. So many different understandings were reached in that time just like some of his sisters had described, though he wondered what the purpose of bringing that moment up again is as he was about to ask.

"Well, as much as I liked remembering all of that, is there a reason you guys are talking about this again?" Lincoln wondered.

"It's all for a very good reason, Lincoln." Lori said, leaving the podium and joining alongside him on the floor, "So, some of us got to talking yesterday night and we filled in everyone else just this morning, too, and we've come to a realization. Like Luna just touched on, our teasing against comics or anything you like taking part in was never literally based on any real malice or any problems with you personally, but all due to a lack of understanding over what they're all about."

Before getting to the point of it all, she put a hand on her brother's shoulder and smiled again.

"Perhaps there's a chance you've catching my drift, but in the event you're not, since none of us had any other plans to speak of right this moment, we thought it'd be a good idea if we spent the day with you experiencing some of those very hobbies of yours together. See, the realization I just mentioned is that it's one thing for us to simply _say_ we'll stop being so callously insulting or casually putting down whatever you like, but we now also feel the need to put actions behind our promises and thus that's how we came up with the idea of giving you the chance to show us those hobbies. So what do you say, Lincoln? How does that sound?"

To say Lincoln didn't see this one coming would be an understatement. At the end of their previous discussion on the subject matter, he was satisfied enough with his sisters committing to reigning in the worst aspects of teasing towards his hobbies and never once did he think about believing they needed to experience anything of the sort. But on the flip side, having this being suggested was very nice either way and maybe it was for the best, because even though there hadn't been any widespread, collective or overly harsh teasing, there had been a handful of minor barbs still being uttered. Such included recent ones like when Lynn called Lincoln's comics lame, Luan referring to science fiction as boring and even Leni of all people who dismissed video games as something that could rot your brain...while apparently not seeing the irony as she stared intently at her phone or even the hypocrisy inherent to her uncharacteristically judgmental ostentation given she played a driving video game at Lincoln's recommendation as a means of preparing for her next driving exam. With all that in mind, he was actually really liking this idea wholeheartedly.

"Wow...are you guys serious about this?" Lincoln asked.

"Absolutely we are, aren't we, girls?" Lori said as she requested additional confirmation.

If the excitable and anticipatory shouts and utterances from the rest of the sisters were anything to go by, they were indeed all in on this, and if they were, then so was Lincoln.

"Um, well then...okay! So, how do you want to do this if I may ask?" He asked them.

"Actually, we kinda wanted you to figure that out for us. Linky." Leni said.

"Yeah, these are your hobbies after all. We wouldn't want to impose our own manner of how we should experience them with you, so we'll leave that up to you in how everything should go about instead." Luan added.

Now having been informed of this, Lincoln chose to take a moment in wondering how to plan out this day. With ten sisters and a comparatively smaller number of hobbies, finding a way to juggle everything appeared to be a challenge.

Ultimately though, he did come up with something.

"Okay, I think I have a plan. But first...Lisa, can I use your blackboard for a couple of minutes?" Lincoln inquired to her.

"Indeed I can grant this request to you, Lincoln." Lisa answered, "Allow me to assist in bringing it along here."

As Lincoln grinned, he and his second youngest sister headed to her and Lily's room to retrieve that very blackboard belonging to the genius. Once it had been brought over to Lori and Leni's room, Lincoln began addressing his sisters again.

"All right, so I'm thinking it may be too unrealistic to expect all ten of you at the same time to watch, read, play or otherwise be alongside with me while we engage in my hobbies. It might be too chaotic if we did it like that. But luckily as I just said, this man has a plan..."

Next, he took some chalk and wrote on the blackboard four specifics of his hobbies.

"So, here's what I'm thinking: you probably know at least four of my favorites interests, those being video games, science fiction movies, the TV show "ARGGH!" and obviously comic books, which I'd argue is my biggest passion of them all. With those in mind, what I'm suggesting is that I divide you up into groups, but I'm not gonna pick any of you at random. Instead, I'll call out one of these hobbies and then anyone who's interested in that one can raise their hands. But to make it more interesting, once you've raised your hand for one thing, that takes you out of contention for anything else and whoever is left by the end, you'll have no choice but to be stuck with whatever is also left. So in other words, choose wisely." Lincoln said, who couldn't help but add a sly grin at the end.

"Uh, one quick question, bro..." Luna began asking, "While I can sort of understand not wanting the whole mosh of us at the same time doing whichever of these hobbies of yours, and I'm not trying to make it sound like I'm objecting to this plan you've come up with, but why are you suggesting we can only do one of each individually? I don't see the problem in us being able to squeeze in a little bit of everything today while still doing that whole deal of grouping us together like you said."

One by one, every other sister sounded off similar inquiries, curiosities and agreements with what Luna had just said, something their brother was readily able to address.

"Actually, that is a good question, Luna." He acknowledged that to her, "I guess the thinking I'm going with here is that I want some proper long-lasting time for each hobby today, like a couple of hours at the very least and that they're wouldn't be enough time to have multiples of you guys experience different hobbies throughout the day. But I mean if there is a problem with that…"

Luna waved her hands, "Oh, no, no, no! I wasn't taking issue with it like I said. I suppose I only wanted to know how your mind was clicking when you came up with that. If that's how you wanna roll, then I'm down with it and so are we all, right, dudes?

"Yeah, and at the end of the day, what's most important is that we learn more about some of what you like and simply spending time with you, Lincoln. So yeah, we're all fine with how you want to do this." Lori said.

When he heard all of his sisters chime next in with their approval too, Lincoln smiled once more and soon after, they got going with the procedure of who gets to take part in what today.

* * *

For the first of these group sessions, it was with what Lincoln had officially dubbed his biggest passion among his hobbies, comic books. It's the same interest that in essence kicked off this whole saga starting from the initial group teasing from his sisters days earlier, to the meaningful discussion later that same day where better understandings were reached and then finally the whole concept of today's schedule of experiencing Lincoln's hobbies.

For reading comics, the sisters who joined Lincoln here were Lori, Luna and Lily. In the latter's case, it wasn't really like she voluntarily chose to take part in this, as she was only imitating what her first and third oldest sisters were doing when they both raised their hands, but it was decided nonetheless that Lily may as well join in on this as well. Besides, comics would in a sense perhaps be the best thing she can take part in given that Lincoln read out loud the comics he picked out for the occasion and it was similar to whenever anytime one of the siblings would ever read to Lily. In any event, the reading was taking place in his room, where Lily was sitting on Lincoln's lap while Lori and Luna were next to him on either side.

Regarding what kind of comics Lincoln chose to read and show off, he naturally went with something from his favorite superhero Ace Savvy, and specifically a five issue story arc entitled "Covert Internal Strife". In it, Ace and his sidekick One-Eyed Jack get into a brief, but roughshod conflict with one another over various disputes disputes that culminates in a nearly fatal battle between them. However, such a struggle was actually fomented the whole time by one of their archenemies, The Old Maid, and upon that discovery, Ace and Jack put aside whatever differences they had, defeated her and foiled her nefarious plot in sowing division in the duo. The whole experience did ultimately reforge and strengthened the partnership and brotherhood between Ace and Jack, both vowing never to have anything that serious ever divide them again.

At the conclusion of reading these comics, on top of a moment of happy clapping and babbling from Lily, Lincoln and the sisters presently with him had a post-reading discussion over everything.

"So, how was that?" Lincoln asked them.

"Well, I'll say this much in that it turned out to be literally more enthralling then I imagined it would be." Lori said.

"Yeah, though it did get pretty dark as it went on. That kinda makes me wonder if bringing along the Lilster with us was a good idea in the first place." Luna added a bit more apprehensively.

"Maybe, but you just saw how she reacted just now. She seemed pretty pleased by the end. Besides, I doubt she totally understood some of those admittedly darker aspects of the storyline and the way I see it, most any other kids can handle dark stuff so long as there's a happy or positive ending to it all. That's pretty much my spin on it I guess." Lincoln posited.

"I suppose that's one way of looking at it. Additionally, I will also say that just based on what we've read together, there is a whole lot more depth to these than I thought. Here I used to think that comics were shallow and nothing more than silly little stories of weirdly dressed good guys beating up weirdly dressed bad guys. Well, this certainly proved otherwise. You'd need to have quite a bit of depth and storytelling prowess in order to sustain these narratives to complement the visual artistry, both with this and many other comics as well. I can now certainly see why some people really like this sort of thing." Lori remarked, giving her brother a wink.

"She's on point, bro. And speaking of which, the more I see it, I gotta admit I get something of a rockstar vibe from the costumes. I know quite a few musicians whose threads can be pretty wild and out there, so I can sort of make the comparison here." Luna mentioned, "Also, while we're at it and since Lori touched on it a little, might as well ask you another question, Linc. Earlier you called comics your biggest passion, right?"

Lincoln nodded, "Yeah, I did."

"Okay, so can I wonder why that is?" Luna asked.

"Oh, sure, I can probably answer that for you, Luna." Lincoln replied, giving it a few seconds worth of pondering first, "Um...I guess for one comics have been the first hobby that I really started getting into when I was much younger. Another reason I can think of is my comic book collection dwarfs even my video game collection, which I will mention is my second favorite hobby of mine, so having so many comics certainly shows the affinity of such. And also just by taking a look at my room, most of the posters and whatnot that adorn the walls are based around comics, too."

"Ah, okay then. And since you brought it up, I do remember when you were a littler dude that when you were learning to read, comics were some of the things you used in helping on that front." Luna recalled.

"Oh yeah, you're right about that, Luna." Lori also remembered as she looked over to their brother, "I believe you even asked me to help you out with that, Lincoln. Of course, that was before my bossier side came into being and prior to when I started having more judgmental views on comics as well. Remembering now that I did on a handful of occasions read along with you with such does sort of make me feel a little worse knowing how much me, Luna and the rest of our sisters would tease you about comic books until we all talked it over a few days earlier."

"Ah, it's okay, Lori." Lincoln assured his older sister, "It's like you said earlier today that what's most important is finally getting know some of this along with me and seemingly also getting some enjoyment out of it, too."

Lori smiled at him, "Yeah, that is true. It actually literally was better than I anticipated, so thanks for sharing this with us, Lincoln."

"Same here with me, little bro." Luna added in, placing an arm around his shoulders.

"Yay!" Lily babbled out as well.

Lincoln smiled widely himself as well. This day of bonding with his sisters while they got to see and learn more about his favorite things to do has already gotten off to a fantastic start. He couldn't wait to see how it would progress further.

* * *

A little while later, Lincoln was now at the living room, where conveniently enough all three of the next remaining hobbies can be done here. The next one on the docket was video games, his second favorite overall of his interests. As far as which sisters were joining him in this instance, it was the trio of Lynn, Lola and Lisa.

For the first little bit, those three would watch their brother play a handful of single player games, but eventually after that though came what Lincoln really wanted to do: multiplayer. Lynn was the first sister to tackle competitive play and naturally, Lincoln thought it would be best to engage in set of sports video games with her. First came a fun couple rounds of "Baseball the Entertainment", then an engaging few plays of "Association of College Pigskin" before rounding things out with a prolonged session of "Big Time Sports Broadcaster Football MMV". Despite her relative lack of experience in the video gaming realm, Lynn still nevertheless dominated the proceedings.

"Whoo! Whomped you again, little bro!" She declared in a braggadocios manner frequent of her.

"Yeah, yeah, yes you did." Lincoln admitted with a couple chuckles, "I'd at first chalk up those opening wins to sheer luck, but as we played along, you really seemed to know what you're doing."

"Heh, you better believe _that_! Just goes to show you whether it be playing for real competitively or casually, or now with the video game variety, you can't bet against me with sports! Based on what's happened already, I can probably beat you in whatever game you throw at me!" Lynn pompously said.

"Oh really, now?" Lincoln inquired intriguingly with a raised eyebrow, "Well, I think I know just the right one to test that theory out…"

He took a few seconds to rummage through a sampling of games he brought with him for the occasion to pull out one very special one. In this case, it was one of the wildest fighting games ever made, "Major American Comic Book Conglomerate Battling Significant Japanese Video Game Developer Hyper Ultra Mega Turbo Special Updated Best Version Yet Also Featuring Longtime Veteran Anime Production Studio."

"Uh...why the excessively drawn out title might I ask?" Lisa asked.

Lincoln shrugged, "You're guess is as good as mine, Lisa. Maybe they just wanted it to sound real epic, which would be appropriate given how crazy this one can get."

"Crazy, huh? Well, let's see it then. You're still going down by the way!" Lynn proudly predicted.

"Oh, we'll see about that, Lynn!" Lincoln said back determinedly.

He fired up the game and it didn't take long to see why it earned and deserved its reputation. The TV screen lit up with dazzling visuals, fast paced team based gameplay and over the top combos. Though Lincoln fared a whole lot better with this game, Lynn did in fairness hold her own.

The visual feast before everyone was so much that even a certain pageant princess was now wanting in on the action.

"Hey, I wanna play, I wanna play!" Lola stated.

"Oh, you do?" Lincoln said admittedly surprised. "Well, let me take care of this last little bit of business first…"

And with one delirious super combo, he vanquished the last of Lynn's team.

"Yes!" He declared victoriously.

"Uh-huh, sure, you got me, Lincoln. Just don't let it get to your head." Lynn said in concession.

Lincoln laughed sardonically, "Wait, you of all people are gonna lecture me on not letting something get to my head?"

"Hey, even us competitive sporty sorts can have enough humility to be self-aware _and_ pass down life lessons at the same time." Lynn said while shrugging.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, lessons are good and all, but I wanna play now!" Lola excitedly mentioned again.

She basically snatched the controller from Lynn's hands and was ready to try her hand at this.

"Well, while I like the enthusiasm, Lola, maybe we should go back and select the practice mode so you can get the hang of this first." Lincoln recommended.

"Oh, forget that! I wanna get straight to it!" Lola shouted.

"Actually, I really think we should-"

"Lincoln!"

"All right, okay then! But all I'm gonna say now is be careful what you wish for, Lols…"

But boy, was Lincoln in for a shocker. Even though this was to his recollection the first time he's personally seen Lola play a video game, she either must be a fast learner or she's had some secret affinity for such that he wasn't aware of. No matter the reasoning, seeing his six year old sister actually taking it to him was astounding.

"Dang, Lols, you're really getting the hang of this!" Lynn commented, impressed with what she's seeing.

"Ha, and you thought I was nothing more than a pretty face who only loves strutting along onstage to her legions of fans." Lola brassily said.

"Guess not. Say, wanna go one-on-one with me, now? That is of course if you're up for the challenge, little sis." Lynn offered up with a cocksure grin.

"You're on, sporty girl!" Lola accepted fearlessly.

This time around, Lynn took Lincoln's controller from him and engaged in what would be the most intense series of match ups between any pair herself, their brother or now Lola for any game today.

"Hey, do you want to try your hand at this once any of them are done, Lisa? You haven't really participated at all since we got things going." Lincoln noted to his younger intellectually unmatched sister.

"Eh, a generous offer, my brother, but I'm content on being a bystander to this. Besides, if the ultra competitiveness being showcased by our present company is any indication, I would be well advised to disengage from such, lest I be to use some appropriate choices of vernacular that our fifth eldest sister is fond in vocalizing, 'creamed' or 'whomped' or whatnot." Lisa said, complete with air quotes using her fingers.

When the dust finally settled, Lynn did ultimately come out on top after one final match up against Lola. Both of them put their controllers aside and flopped back against the couch, which Lincoln saw as a signal to go over, shut off the gaming system and take out the game within it. He then rejoined his sisters on the couch when that was done.

"Wow, I gotta hand it to you, Lincoln, this was actually a whole lot of fun." Lynn said, giving him a quick little jab on the shoulder, "Maybe I can do this more often so I can have another excuse in beating you and our sisters in something else...and also so I can be with you more, too."

"Yeah, thank you, Linky!" Lola added, giving him a big hug.

"Thought the likelihood of myself engaging in this electronic medium of entertainment stimuli in the near feature is very limited, even I can grant the value it gives to many, present company most definitely included." Lisa mentioned, smiling at her brother's direction.

Two hobbies of his down and Lincoln was still loving every second of this, and he knew it was going to be sustained with the next two coming up.

* * *

Following another break from that most intense of video gaming sessions, Lincoln settled in for the next item on today's agenda of bonding with his sisters and experiencing of his hobbies, that being one of his favorite TV shows, "ARGGH!". There were technically no episodes scheduled for today, but Lincoln did have a pair saved on the DVR that he recently watched on his own, but had no issue giving them a repeat viewing along with the sisters gathered with him for this. Specifically, those sisters in this case were the grouping of Leni, Lucy and Lana.

Just as everyone was settling in and Lincoln was queuing up one of the episodes, the sunny skies which lit up the day prior switched over and gave way to darker gray clouds, making for a perfect atmosphere for watching a show about ghost hunting on top of the lighting in the living room being turned off.

After the program's signature intense opening sequence, the series' host and star, Hunter Spector, introduced the viewers to where he was at and what he was potentially tracking this time around.

" _Greetings, ghost hunters! Today we are at the_ _Bingham Canyon Open Pit Mine in Copperton, Utah, just a few miles southwest of Salt Lake City. My crew and I have been getting reports that there may be some spiritual activity_ _afoot, so let's see what we can 'mine' out of this operation!"_

As the show went on and as Hunter's antics ranged from deadly serious to hamming up the camp factor something fierce, so too did the reactions greatly vary from the sisters watching alongside Lincoln. On the most positive end of the spectrum, Lana appeared to be very much enthralled with what she was seeing.

"Whoa! Why haven't I watched this show sooner? This is so cool!" She said beguiled.

Next, Lucy came off as more reserved, perhaps not that atypical from her normally stoic behavior and candor she carries herself. She normally didn't give "ARGGH!" the time of day previously because even though she has a strong affinity for ghosts and spirits, she thought the show had such a sensationalist slant to it all that she felt it disrespected spectral entities. But even she had to admit that Hunter Spector himself did seem to have a genuine passion for ghosts, and though her own personal opinion would be that spirits should be left alone or at the very least be spoken to as opposed to being tracked down and captured, those that Hunter look like he usually went after based on what Lincoln occasionally would speak about the show and what she watched now were more malicious or even outright evil, so even Lucy could possibly understand the need to deal with them like so.

Finally, Leni's reactions were the most varied of all, ranging from engaged to looking genuinely frightened. She felt sort of bad for herself being somewhat easily startled given she was the oldest of this present group of siblings. At one point, she even ensnared Lucy into an unintentionally tight embrace for extra support during one of the show's more intense moments.

"Leni...you're...suffocating...me…" Lucy tried in getting out.

"Oh...sorry about that, Lucy." Leni said, slowly letting go of her younger sister.

"Sigh…" Lucy vocalized to catch her breath, "You know, just for the sake of asking, if this show is sort of creeping you out, why did you choose to see it in the first place?"

Leni sighed, "Well, I didn't think I had much of a choice after not raising my hand for comics and video games like Lincoln set things up for us. With what was left, I wasn't really wanting see any of those see-fie thingies because I thought they'd be, like, really creepy and stuff, so I went with this thinking their could be cute ghosts if those even exist."

She sighed a second time, but then she showed off a little smile.

"But I'm not gonna let it beat me, though. I'll get through this and that other episode coming up next for Linky's sake." She said, giving that very same little brother of hers a brief hug, since he happened to be sitting next to her on the other side.

"Well, thanks, Leni, and not to sound nit picky or anything, but I believe you were trying to say _sci-fi_." Lincoln mentioned, "And actually, you really won't have anything to worry about regarding the next episode. It's not that creepy at all, because if anything else, 'fascinating' would be the best word to describe it."

"Really? I don't know, fascinating sounds like another way of saying 'boring' to me." Lana said, sounding less enthused.

"Oh, trust me, Lana, it's not boring at all. You'll see once we get to it." Lincoln assured her.

Once the current episode had ended, Lincoln started up the second one and like he promised, it was certainly of the different sort. It had a near total tonal shift, complete with a different intro involving a calm voiceover from Hunter saying "tonight on a very special episode of 'ARGGH!'". Another big difference was that it was an hour long as opposed to the typical episode length of a half hour.

In this episode, Hunter traveled to the Four Corners region of the United States, which consists of southeastern Utah, southwestern Colorado, northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. The region is also home to the Navajo Nation, the largest Indian reservation in the country and of which was a huge focal point of the episode. It acted as much of a cultural exploration of the Navajo people, their history and their customs as well, but given the show was still otherwise about ghosts, they were obviously the main subject with Hunter exploring, detecting and learning about such indigenous spirits, just without hunting and catching any in another departure from the norm.

By the time that episode concluded, much he did with Lori, Luna and Lily with the comics they read, Lincoln had a more brief discussion regarding the contents.

"So, there you have it." He began, "Like I said, it's very different for what they typically do, but it's always nice to mix things up I'd say."

"Yeah, you're right about that. I would've never expected something so poignant and respectful of certain spirits from a show that I originally thought viewed ghosts only as beings to be scorned and supernaturally imprisoned. But I'm glad to be wrong in this case." Lucy said, creaking up a little smile on her lips.

"I was totally wrong, too. That wasn't boring at all. I really did like that as well." Lana added.

"Me, too! It was totes worth it! Thank you so much for showing us this, Lincoln!" Leni wrapped up with happily, hugging him another time in addition.

Three sets of hobbies with different sisters down, and there was but only one remaining…

* * *

For the forth and final session of the hobby and sibling bonding fusion that dominated the day, it seemed apropos that it concluded with a much different setup than the earlier ones. When reading comics, playing video games and watching "ARGGH!", Lincoln did so with three of his sisters along with him. But with this last one, watching a sci-fi movie, he only had Luan by his side this time around. It pretty much came as a result of both being the only remaining hobby and with Luan not raising her hand for any of the first three ones, so by default this became the setup anyway. Another change compared to the last two sessions in the day was despite Lincoln knowing he could use the living room for this, he opted instead to watch this movie he chosen in his room so that the TV can be freed up for whomever might need it for their own purposes. Though the TV certainly would've enhanced the experience as opposed to the laptop screen being used here while he and Luan sat together on his bed just a few inches away from it in this instance, but nonetheless the important thing was again doing something like this at all along with the last of his sisters for the day.

In a sense, though, Luan actually sort of liked how this panned out for a pair of reasons. For one, science fiction was the interest of Lincoln's that she did casually put down recently in spite of the promises she and her sisters made to their brother about refraining from being insulting to his hobbies too roughly, so it was perhaps a sense of happenstance that watching something in relation to that which she somewhat looked down upon would be worth it. As for the second reason why she liked it being only her and Lincoln for this, she was going to wait a little while longer to personally reveal that herself.

For the movie selection Lincoln picked out in this instance, it was one from the franchise "Reptilian Extraterrestrials in Extended Warfare with Intergalactic Otherworldly Armored Warriors, Plus A Lot of Humans and Space Marines Caught In Between". Much like with "ARGGH!" a couple of hours earlier, the continued presence of dark clouds which now had also begun dumping torrential downpours of rain made for the perfect atmosphere in this cinematic venture.

"Hey, thanks for watching this with me, Luan." Lincoln told her just as the film began, "I know you didn't have a choice in the matter given this was the last option you had during the morning and it's something I know you aren't the biggest fan of, but I appreciate it anyway."

"Ah, shucks, it's no problem, Lincoln. Sure, maybe I could've chosen something different I had put more of an effort into it, but like what was agreed upon in the morning, I gotta work with the _hand_ I was dealt with. And yes, science fiction is something that's very _alien_ to me, but the best I can do give it a chance, which is after all one of the purposes of this day." Luan replied, though curiously didn't laugh or chuckle over the pair of puns she cracked.

Nevertheless, the flick really got going and the two of them focused their attention on it. As time went on, one thing Luan did concede to in her thoughts was that this wasn't exactly boring like she previously perceived such to be. There were peaks and valleys of slower moments heavy on dialogue interspersed between build ups to the more action focused sequences filled with thrills, chills and certainly spills of both the slimy and somewhat sanguine sorts, some of which were a bit disturbing for Luan, but "boring" this was not no matter how she looked at it.

"Hey, do Mom and Dad know you watch this kind of stuff?" Luan inquired, "Not that I'm trying to be one of those nagging, disapproving types, but something tells me there could be a reason as to why you've chosen to have us watch this here in your room instead of back downstairs in the living room."

"Uh...for the most part, yeah, they do." Lincoln answered slightly uneasily and with a couple of small laughs, "I mean, maybe not _entirely_ ever single solitary detail of such, but as long as they know it isn't _super_ violent or gory, I think I'm in the clear until I get a bit more older and they'll trust me with gradually more explicit content and beyond."

Thought Luan had reason to suspect there's a chance their parents aren't wholly on the up and up about everything Lincoln consumes in terms of entertainment that he might not be within the so called "appropriate" age to view or play, she wasn't going to make that big of a deal about it nor would she ever consider tattling on them regarding such, either. As siblings, they did entrust each other with keeping certain things out of the public purview of their parents as do the rest of their sisters. After all, Luan herself can personally attest to watching some particularly raunchy and profane stand-up comedy routines and bits online that her parents would be far from approving of her watching, so she'd be something of a hypocrite if she actually thought about telling on them over anything Lincoln sees that he might be "too young" to look at right now.

"Hey, just as a heads up without spoiling much, this next sequence goes on pretty long without much in the way of action." Lincoln suddenly spoke up.

"Um, okay, but why are you telling me this out of the blue?" Luan asked.

"Well, I'm not sure what you're overall opinion of this will be once it's over, but I will say you do see pretty engaged based on what we've watched so far." Lincoln explained, a grin forming on his face, "That seems to mean something coming from the girl who told me not too long ago that science fiction is boring, so I thought there's a chance you'll complain about this sequence I guess."

"Now, hold on a minute, Lincoln, I have to correct the record here. _I_ didn't say science fiction is boring, but instead it was Mr. Coconuts who delivered that little quip." Luan said with a smirk.

"Ah yes, the old 'blame the dummy' routine. Something tells me you're gonna get a lot of mileage out of _that_ one in life." Lincoln responded following his own smirk plus a roll of his eyes.

"Maybe…" Luan teasingly conceded, only to then sigh and frown, "But yeah, all joking aside, hopefully when I did say that it didn't come off as too insulting. I don't know if you took it personally or not, but I do apologize either way."

Lincoln patted her on the shoulder, "Hey, it's okay, Luan. Sure, it's never nice to hear anyone, let alone a sister of mine, say something not so nice about anything of mine I like, but I didn't sense too much in the way of maliciousness when it was said nor did I think it was too big of a violation of that promise you and our sisters made about pulling back on teasing me too harshly over what I like taking part in."

Luan couldn't help but smile, "Aw, well thanks, Lincoln. And speaking somewhat of that, there's actually something I'd like to tell you as long as we have this time together. The truth is that this whole concept of our sisters and myself hanging out with you all day long while getting a chance to experience the things you like was initially my idea."

"Whoa...really?" Lincoln said very much surprised, "Can I ask how that came about?"

"Sure, I can do that…" Luan began explaining, "So, when Lori said this morning that the night before she and some of us got to talking, that was specifically her, myself and Lisa. We just happened to be together and talking about what have you and then we briefly reminisced about that great talk we all had as a group a few days back. At one point, Lisa mentioned the possibility of if we should ever get a better firsthand look at your hobbies, then before you know it, Lori liked that and finally I made the suggestion of what we've all been doing today. So technically speaking having said that, both of them deserve some credit as well, but yeah, the actual practice of doing this was generally my idea and we ran it by the rest of our sisters this morning, then we ran it by you obviously and the rest is history."

Lincoln was quite pleasantly stunned by this new revelation. Here he assumed this whole idea was some sort of collective concept all his sisters came up with together. But to now learn that it was actually the brainchild of just only three of them, but particularly of his fourth oldest sister currently alongside with him, it sort of felt a little more special in a way. Still, he had to credit each of sisters in any event for them all wanting to do this with him anyway.

"Huh...well, in that case, thank you very much, Luan. That's so nice of you...but what else would I expect? You are after all such a naturally nice sister of mine at the end of the day." Lincoln said to her wholeheartedly.

Luan smiled and even blushed a little, "Aw, you're welcome, Lincoln. You're of the very kind sort yourself as well. Anything for me and our sisters to further reinforce our promise so that we-"

However, this tenderhearted moment between siblings was abruptly cut off when a pair of loud, out of nowhere screeching and roaring sounds signature to that of the film's two warring unearthly space-originating creatures gave both of them a serious startle. So much so, they instinctively flung their arms around the other.

"Heh...sorry, Lincoln…" Luan said through anxious chortling.

"No problem, Luan. That moment always gets to me too even when I know it's coming, which should tell you how effect of a scene it is." Lincoln said, also similarly frazzled.

Even after the shock wore off, they still remained in holding on to each other, including with Lincoln adjusting his positioning some so that he was leaning his head along Luan's shoulder. In reciprocation, Luan smiled and rested her own head on top of Lincoln's as they got comfortable being close together all the way until the finale of the movie.

"Ah, that was fun. So...what do you think?" Lincoln curiously asked his sister.

"Hmm...well, even though it was only one movie, it does kind of debunk my original preconceived notion that science fiction being boring I'll say that much of it." Luan replied.

"But what about the quality of it, though?" Lincoln wondered.

"Eh...honestly, I probably won't go out of my way to see much of stuff like this myself, but it was certainly thrilling regardless if I wholly saw it fully positively or not. But ultimately, my personal opinion isn't what's most important. To repeat a similar mantra you've probably heard a number of times already today, the most important thing was experiencing whatever myself and our sisters got to see of yours and doing so while of course bonding with you." Luan stated proudly.

Lincoln briefly tightened his hold of her fondly, "Well, that last part definitely was indeed what matter the most. Thank you for watching this with me, Luan...and especially for you being generous enough to come up with the initial idea of this, too."

"Anytime, Lincoln." Luan said, giving him a small kiss on his cheek to wrap things up.

* * *

After such a fun day, dinnertime was upon the Loud family, where such a meal was used as a forum for all eleven of the siblings to regale and talk about their own personal experiences of how everything went for one another. Listening in, Lynn Sr. and Rita couldn't have been more delighted to hear their kids having such a wonderful day together and particularly how the girls were so willing and able to give Lincoln the time of day to understand all the hubbub around his interests.

Once the evening really was setting in and bedtime just around the corner, all of the siblings returned to Lori and Leni's room for one last brief meeting.

"All right, guys, let's make this quick." Lori advised everyone, "I think it's safe to say we literally had a great, eye-opening experience today, haven't we?"

The subsequent scattered positive statements of the affirmative most certainly formed a universal consensus on that.

"Wow...yeah, this was such a worthwhile endeavor. Thanks so much for doing this with, and thank you again specifically to you for suggesting this, Luan." Lincoln said.

"No problem, Lincoln. And hey, why stop today? We should keep doing this very soon, like tomorrow." Luan suggested.

"Yeah, I'd be down with that. In fact, based the lowdown Leni, Luce and Lans gave out during chow time, I might like to give "ARGGH!" a chance myself, bro." Luna said.

"And maybe I can get a better look into comics. If what Lori and Luna had to say is anything to go by, perhaps they're not so lame after all and I'll give them a chance as well." Lynn added.

"I'd be willing to give video games another chance, Linky. Like, you did make me play that one driving game before and I feel like a, uh...hippo-create, is it, for when I thought they could rot your brain?" Leni inquired.

" _Hypocrite."_ Lisa corrected.

"Oh, right, that's what I meant. Besides, Lynn and Lola totes sounded like they had a supes amount of fun, so maybe I can, too!" Leni finished off jubilantly.

"And I wanna see some of those sci-fi movies of yours, Lincoln!" Lana shouted, "Luan said they have like a bunch of slime and such. Slime is cool!"

"Yeah it did and some...other stuff. But something tells me he'll find something that's a little more, how shall I put it...well suited for a six year old I guess is the best way of putting it." Luan said carefully.

"I guess so…" Lincoln acknowledged, "But in any event, sure, I love to keep this going, and next time, I'll just handpick who will do what with me next time as well instead of the manner we handled it today. Also, one last thing. This only occurred to me just today, but since you promised me you'll try to work on not being as disrespectful or insulting of my hobbies, I'll do the same for you guys as well. Granted, I can't really remember many recent times I've done that for whatever you like, but it should be fair that I refrain for such as well, too."

"Aw, well thank you, Lincoln, and thank you for showing us such a great time all day long. Obviously there's literally no guarantee we'll like everything you show us, but to drive it home one more time, it's all about giving everything a chance, learning more about them and of course, spending some much deserved quality time with you, because we love you very much, Lincoln." Lori said, the last portion having all the heartfelt emphasis in the world.

Lincoln had a big smile come across his face, "And I love you all, too."

Naturally, to fulfill that shared sentiment between them all, the siblings gathered into a group hug to put the proverbial bow on things.

Like that deep and meaningful discussion he had with them days earlier, this was one of the most important days Lincoln could remember having with his sisters. Like Lori had just said, there was no guarantee they will like everything of his and although it would make for a huge bonus if any of them became fans or regular participants of such, the biggest and most important takeaway for him was knowing that they'll take a more open-minded approach to his interests from this point onward.

Even more important than that though, he adored the fact they wanted to spent more time with him on top of that, and none of them will ever object to that. Sibling bonds can be after all argued as being among the best and closest of any type of relationships around and closer, strengthening ties of such are always a huge positive in life for anyone within and around them.

**Author's Note:**

> Heh...seems like I cap off quite a few of my works with the same overall message about the joys, warms and fuzzies of sibling relationships, not just simply those of the older sister/younger brother variety as you've seen and heard me gush on about before. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, is there? No, not one little bit!
> 
> Now, while I didn't have much to say at the start, I'll take a moment in explaining with regards to the things everyone watched, played and experienced.
> 
> First, the Ace Savvy comic book line "Covert Internal Strife" I made up is based on the Marvel Comics story "Civil War". I'm not a comic book guy at all aside from many video game adaptions I've played and my only knowledge of that storyline is what was used in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2.
> 
> Second, with the video game titles I came up with, they're all references to real life ones and they are as follows:
> 
> "Baseball the Entertainment" - MLB The Show series  
> "Association of College Pigskin" - NCAA Football series  
> "Big Time Sports Broadcaster Football MMV - ESPN NFL 2K5  
> "Major American Comic Book Conglomerate Battling Significant Japanese Video Game Developer Hyper Ultra Mega Turbo Special Updated Best Version Yet Also Featuring Longtime Veteran Anime Production Studio" - A combo of the Marvel vs. Capcom series, the stand alone game Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars and parodying how Capcom re-releases new editions of their fighting games with ever increasingly longer titles.
> 
> Third, the Bingham Canyon Open Pit Mine is an actual location in the state of Utah, but it's not actually haunted and I simply chose it for it's own sake to be different, and the same logic goes for the whole Four Corners/Navajo Nation/change in tone in the case of the episodes of "ARRGH!"
> 
> And finally, "Reptilian Extraterrestrials in Extended Warfare with Intergalactic Otherworldly Armored Warriors, Plus A Lot of Humans and Space Marines Caught In Between" is a fairly obvious reference to the Aliens vs. Predator franchise, but I wasn't actually having Luan and Lincoln watching either of the two real life movies within it. Instead, it was only a completely fictitious one, which is why I didn't reference any specific scenes.
> 
> So, aside from now learning I have a thing for overly long and euphemistic parodies of titles, there's a reason why I did it like that. For whatever reason, I have this strange aversion to making actual references to real life brand names within fanfiction, so I go with parodies instead. That's pretty much how I roll, I guess.
> 
> Whew...now with all that explained, I thank you for reading as always and until the next time, I'll see you around!


End file.
